Within the context of enterprise software application deployment, traditional methods of deployment often require organizations/customers to install software application products within a single node at a data center, or to customize the installation to best suit the particular requirements of the customer site. There is generally no predefined blueprint regarding the deployment of such products. Furthermore, in the context of software application products that are suitable for use over multiple geographic locations, such as Oracle Fusion Applications, a customer may wish to utilize a thick client which is, e.g., installed at a customer site but which is otherwise wired with servers at a remote hosting location, such as at an Oracle Data Center. However, such configurations can present security risks due to firewalls at the customer's network and at the data center network needing to be opened, and other performance implications. These are the general areas that embodiments of the invention are intended to address.